Many companies throughout the United States use the delivery services of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to deliver mail pieces including cards, letters, flats, mailers, parcels and packages to their customers and potential customers. The mail pieces may include transactional mail, delivered goods and/or direct mail advertisements. Similarly, individuals use the delivery services of the USPS to deliver mail pieces to individuals and businesses around the country. Many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom rate certain mail pieces at least partially based upon the physical dimensions (e.g., including shape) of the mail pieces.
Manual methods for determining dimensions such as by using rulers can be time consuming and lead to errors both in the subjective reading of a measurement and in the transcribing of a measurement. Existing automated dimensional measurement systems such as large commercial laser based package dimension scanners tend to be large, expensive, and not easily scalable. Items that do not have common geometric shape can be particularly difficult to measure accurately. Mail pieces that are not rated accurately can be delayed, returned and/or subject to additional charges in the form of re-paying postage and potential fines that could be levied by carriers. Moreover, mail processing systems such as mailing machines including postage meters typically expeditiously process many thin mail pieces such as postcards and envelopes including letters and flats. Certain of those mailing machines are equipped to measure certain of the dimensional measurements of those mail pieces, but are limited to measuring those that fit in the transport mechanism of the mailing machines.
Additionally, the carriers may utilize dimensional rating standards and measurement definitions that vary from one carrier to another and that may be difficult for a user to comply with. For example, the USPS utilizes several categories of mail and several classes of mail each combination of permissible category and class having certain parameters used in determining the rate applicable. The parameters may include shape, size limits, weight, destination zone or distance or a combination thereof. The USPS publishes physical requirements and pricing information in the USPS Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) and its Prices and Fees schedules. For First-Class Mail, the shape and weight of the mail piece determine the rate. For Express Mail, the weight of the mail piece always determines the rate, except for items mailed in Express Mail Flat-Rate Envelopes. For Priority Mail that weighs more than 1 pound, the rate is based on a combination of weight, shape, and how far the mail piece is traveling.
The USPS generally defines five mail processing categories for mail pieces: letter, flat, machinable parcel, irregular parcel, and outside parcel. The USPS assigns each mail piece to one of these categories based on the physical dimensions and characteristics of the mail piece using the longest dimension as the length, regardless of the placement or orientation of the delivery address on the piece. For some mail piece categories, such as letters, the USPS then redefines the length of a mail piece for rating purposes as the side that is parallel to the address block (regardless of the orientation of the mail piece). For flats and parcels, the USPS always defines the length as the longest side of the mail piece. The USPS utilizes measurements of “length” and “girth” to dimensionally rate certain packages. Once the length and girth are known, the rate for a particular class of service may be determined using an appropriate look up table. Other carriers, such as, for example, the United Kingdom's Royal Mail, specify that the length of each mail piece is always the longest side of the mail piece (regardless of the orientation of the mail piece). Current dimensional rating systems may not adequately handle such dimensional rating requirements.
Accordingly, there are several disadvantages of currently available systems and methods for dimensionally rating mail pieces.